feature post production Feature sponsored by
The need to do more with less is certainly not unique to broadcast facilities these days but managers of post production operations are increasingly meeting the need for economy by using low-cost off- the-shelf applications and flexible hardware. The trend is to use parts of software suites from Adobe, Apple, and Avid - the best tools for each job. Editors may have their favourites but they are increasingly conversant with all three and freelancers certainly need to be proficient in everything. Another trend involves the need to deliver to a variety of formats. It is no longer enough for content creators to deliver a broadcast version of their projects, they also often need to supply files that are destined for playout over the web and on mobile devices. Daniel Maloney, technical marketing director for Matrox Video Products Group, reports.
‘Swiss Army knife’ for post facilities
M
anufacturers of I/O hardware are being looked to reduce the need for expensive special purpose cards and devices and
instead offer ‘Swiss Army Knife-like’ tools that can do it all. Matrox has stepped up to offer the
Matrox MXO2 family of I/O devices that combine all the features of an I/O card and a breakout box in convenient form factors that can be easily moved among the editing systems in a post facility, installed in an OB van, or taken on the road with laptops by field journalists. The Matrox MXO2 family for Mac offers support for a wide variety of HD and SD workflows with Final Cut Studio and other popular Mac content creation
Daniel Maloney, technical
marketing director for Matrox Video Products Group.
applications. The Matrox MXO2 family for PC lets users get the most from the Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium suite of applications. Matrox MXO2 Mini provides a cost-effective HD monitoring solution for Avid Media Composer 5 and Avid NewsCutter 9. The Matrox MXO2 devices provide
highly reliable, broadcast-quality video and audio input/output as well as HDMI video monitoring with the unique Matrox calibration controls including blue-only. Users also benefit from a 10-bit hardware scaling engine and support for a wealth of file-based formats and industry standard codecs. As an added advantage, all four of the Matrox MXO2 products are also available with Matrox MAX technology for lightning-fast high definition H.264 file creation for Blu-ray, the web, and mobile devices.
Convenient form factors
The Matrox MXO2 products connect to laptops, desktop systems, or workstations via an ExpressCard slot, a PCI Express adapter card, or a Thunderbolt adapter. MXO2 Mini, MXO2 LE and MXO2 are lightweight, portable devices that easily fit into a laptop bag. MXO2 and MXO2 LE can run off standard field batteries or their
74 l ibe l september/october 2011 l
www.ibeweb.com
included AC power adapter. MXO2 LE attaches directly to a battery via a standard 4-pin XLR connector. MXO2 connects to a battery via an optional cable that can be purchased separately. MXO2 Rack occupies 2RU in a standard 19" inch rack. It comes with two adjustable mounting ‘ears’ so that the unit can be mounted in the rack with the connectors facing the front or back. The design of the ears lets the user adjust the depth of the unit in the rack.
Broadcast-quality video and audio I/O
The Matrox MXO2 products provide a full range of professional HD and SD video inputs and outputs. Analogue component, Y/C, composite, and HDMI are supported on all models. Matrox MXO2 LE, MXO2 and MXO2 Rack include SDI support and provide SD analogue black burst (bi-level) or HD tri-level sync genlock. They can genlock to any type of video input or to house sync. Timing offset controls can be used to align video output relative to an external genlock source to compensate for cable delays within the facility. On MXO2 Rack, loop through is supported. Audio I/O connections such as RCA,
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